Amazon Wants To Take Over The World And That Should Scare You
The tech conglomerate and “everything store” is strategically invading and taking over various industries and there’s no reason to expect them to stop until they rule the world.
Earlier this summer, you may have heard the news that Amazon bought Whole Foods. That $13.7 billion acquisition was completed in late August, and it has sent shockwaves throughout the grocery industry.
On it’s first day, Amazon cut prices on a number of popular items, by up to 43%. The grocery industry has notoriously slim profit margins to begin with, but Amazon can cut prices at Whole Foods because Whole Foods has a profit margin that’s 3.1% higher than Amazon’s 1.7%, giving Amazon the room, and luxury, to play with prices and still profit.
Amazon is an existential threat to the entire grocery and supermarket industry. And it’s not the first industry the tech titan has invaded.
Within the last year or so, Amazon has started, and will continue opening, physical book stores (and showed that they either don’t understand the experience of physically buying books, or don’t care). These stores are molded by populist trends based on Amazon’s treasure trove of data, and are troublesome for multiple reasons and for multiple parties.
Like with Whole Foods, Amazon can ensure prices that are competitive — if not, outright lower — and still be profitable. Their foray into e-books has already shifted how we read, and their physical stores are aiming to shift what we read, only carrying books that are well-reviewed on Amazon.
Amazon is not only a threat to physical bookstores who don’t have other ways of making up for losses, but also to the book industry. If Amazon continues to squeeze publishers, then publishers will be more reluctant to take risks, writers who can help advance our culture won’t be heard, and society loses.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and it’s been in a perpetual state of expansion ever since, but what makes Amazon scary is the following:
- It’s spread its tentacles into various industries and consuming them from within, becoming competitors to Wal-Mart, Netflix, and Google (to name a few) all at the same time; and
- There is no reason to expect them to stop, simply because it’s not in the DNA of Business to stop doing what is profitable
“This is a company with boundless ambition and a mission to continue to gain market share in almost all the categories that it enters.” — Brad Stone, author of “The Everything Store”
The evidence is right in front of our eyes. Just look at their full-size logo and think about what the arrow going from “a” to “z” means. Now, it’s a bit unrealistic to expect people to completely boycott Amazon, so here’s the reasonable and doable solution I’m proposing: just don’t go to Amazon for everything. Get your avocados at Whole Foods, but don’t also get your books from Amazon. Use a Kindle, but don’t also use Amazon’s streaming service.
At its core, what Amazon wants is your loyalty. They’re okay with losing a bit of money in your first year with them if it helps you stay with them for ten. They’re okay with lowering prices at Whole Foods if it gets you in the door, where they can get you to buy a Kindle, or an Echo, or sign up for Prime membership. Their tagline is: “Amazon.com…and you’re done.” They want you to go to them for everything. Don’t.
Even disregarding the creepy fact that going to Amazon for everything gives them data about you for everything, there’s just not a lot of upside. Yeah the Echo’s digital assistant, Alexa, could probably one day get your groceries without you having to do anything, and maybe you’ll save a decent amount of money, but at what cost? Are you really willing to place your faith in Amazon and give them the world? Conglomerates have no hearts. They exist solely to make money. Amazon isn’t here to take part, but to take over. Amazon is coming for everything. Amazon is coming for it all.
